"Actor: Fabia Drake"

• Stainless Steel and the Star Spies | DVD | (01/07/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  In 1981, the legendary Euston Films produced this quirky, one-off sci-fi kids' comedy, both paying homage to and gently parodying the genius of Gerry Anderson. Featuring a blend of live-action and puppetry, Stainless Steel and the Star Spies is written by celebrated cartoonist Gray Jolliffe, produced by Verity Lambert, and stars comedy greats Anna Karen and Deryck Guyler. The Metaliens, alien robots intent on galactic domination, encounter a major setback. Their enormous Space Saucer, 'Compromise', enters a black hole in a strange, uncharted region of Space, and collides with another craft - sending the Kleptonite Ball, their precious cargo and the key to Universal Conquest, hurtling to a planet inhabited by primitive life forms: Earth. Having materialised in a bar, the Ball variously functions as a Christmas tree decoration, a bathroom ornament, and a fortune-teller's prop. The Metaliens must retrieve the Kleptonite Ball if their mission is ever to succeed. And that's when their problems really begin...

• A Nice Girl Like Me | DVD | (12/01/2015) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Barbara Ferris Harry Andrews and triple Oscar nominee Gladys Cooper star in this quintessentially Sixties romantic comedy from award-winning director Desmond Davis. Released in 1969 A Nice Girl Like Me is featured here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. Liberated Londoner Candida inherits a house and a small sum of money and leaves for Paris; when she returns she finds she is pregnant and Savage a friend who shares her house takes care of her. Leaving her baby with her aunt Candida then heads for Italy and comes back with a forsaken child consigned to her care by a desperate mother. Savage advises her to consider marriage but when a suitor steps forward Candida finally becomes aware of the man she truly loves. Unfortunately however she is returning from Italy with a token remembrance... another pregnancy!

• Not Wanted on Voyage | DVD | (28/01/2008) from £17.53   |  Saving you £-4.54 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A rollicking comedy adventure with Brian Rix and Ronald Shiner playing two cabin stewards bound for Tangiers aboard a cruise ship. As comedy enthusiasts would expect Rix loses his trousers as the two bumbling stewards attempt to uncover the identity of a jewel thief and recover the priceless diamonds of a wealthy passenger.

• The Prisoner - 35th Anniversary Companion | DVD | (30/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Primarily aimed at fanatic completists, The Prisoner 35th Anniversary Companion gives us an alternative version of the opening episode "Arrival" recently rediscovered from Canadian archival material, along with the broadcast version for comparison. The collection also has text files on associative material like the score for the music, the novelisations and the Dinky model of the mini-moke, clips of the interval bumpers, alternative clips of the opening credits and a sequence in which the opening credits shot of a filing cabinet labelled "Resignations" is reshot in a variety of languages for foreign markets. The episode included reminds us, in both its versions, what an innovative and sinister show The Prisoner was--George Baker in particular is an impressive foil to Patrick McGoohan. There are also text files on the careers of McGoohan and his collaborator George Markstein, as well as an extended interview with Bernard Williams in which he talks frankly about the difficulties of producing a show whose scripts were being written by the star as it was being shot, and tells us of the last-minute improvisation of the sinister balloon, Rover. There is also a short documentary about the show, its fans and the memorabilia shop at Portmeirion, plus a Prisoner parody Renault ad. On the DVD: The Prisoner 35th Anniversary Companion is presented in standard 4:3 television visual ratio; the mono sound has not worn well, especially in the alternative version of "Arrival" where it is at times painfully scratchy. The interface is user-confusing; if you don't already know the shape of The Village it is not immediately obvious that the menu continues on two screens. The packaging includes a lavish booklet that includes a facsimile of the production notes for the show. --Roz Kaveney

• Miss Marple - A Pocketful Of Rye | DVD | (10/07/2000) from £13.19   |  Saving you £6.80 (51.55%)   |  RRP £19.99

  After the hugely successful 'Murder In The Library' Joan Hickson returns in a brand new Miss Marple mystery on DVD 'A Pocketful Of Rye'. Miss Marple yet again has to solve a suspicious murder with her incredible powers of perception. In this sinister tale set in the 1940's Miss Marple sets about unravelling the mysterious murder of city financier Rex Fortescue. When the cause of death is identifed as poisoning suspicion falls on the occupants of the family home Yew Tree Lodge. But the police are baffled because the only clue to the heartless murder is a handful of rye in the dead man's pocket. However when another murder shortens the list of suspects the connection with the nursey rhyme Sing a song of sixpence becomes all too clear to Miss Marple! So the unlikely sleuth sets off for Yew Tree lodge...